Marcus Stoinis’s unbeaten knock 89(47)* and collective economical spells from Lucknow Super Giants bowlers sealed 5-run victory against Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday.
This victory takes LSG one step closer towards clinching the playoff spot as they are behind Chennai Super Kings. Yash Dayal displayed nerves of steel as he nailed his yorkers and defended 11 off the last over to win a nail-biter for the home side. Chasing 178, Mumbai Indians got off to a breezy start. Ishan Kishan was off the blocks quickly as he swept one powerfully behind square leg for a four off Krunal Pandya in the first over and then took on Mohsin Khan, for a four in the second over.
Kishan cracked another four off Naveen-ul-Haq before Rohit Sharma showed the first signs of aggression as he charged down the track and clobbered a 92m six to welcome Yash Thakur into the attack.
Rohit smacked another six off Naveen before a splendid effort from Bishnoi on the ropes nearly sent him back. Bishnoi couldn’t maintain his balance after taking a leaping catch at deep backward square leg but the momentum pushed him onto the ropes and he couldn’t throw the ball inside the ropes. MI had an excellent Powerplay as they reached a score of 58/0.
Rohit and Kishan kept the scorecard ticking mixing singles and twos with boundaries but it was Ravi Bishnoi who provided the crucial breakthrough as he had Rohit (37 off 25) caught at long-on to break the 90-run opening stand.
Kishan then brought up his fifty, off just 34 balls as he pulled one over square leg for a four off Krunal. He pulled another one over mid-wicket two balls later to bring up the 100 in the 11th over. Bishnoi struck again in his next over as he had Kishan caught at deep square leg for 59(39) to help LSG crawl back into the match.
Impact Player Yash Thakur then provided a crucial moment in the match as he made Suryakumar Yadav drag one onto the stumps as he paddled it onto his stumps trying to scoop.
With 47 needed off 24, Mohsin came back and dismissed the in-form Nehal Wadhera (16 off 20). MI introduced Vishnu Vinod as their Impact Player as he walked out to bat at the fall of Wadhera’s wicket. David cracked a huge six in the over but, overall it was a decent over for LSG with 8 runs and a wicket and the equation reading 39 needed off 18.
Yash Thakur then bowled a fantastic over as he had Impact Player Vishnu Vinod caught at deep square leg and gave away just nine runs as the equation came down to 30 needed off 12.
After a dot off the first ball of the penultimate over, David hammered a huge 90m six over wide long-on off Naveen. He crashed the next one too long off and scampered through for a couple of. Naveen then bowled a waist-height no ball as David missed his swing and the keeper too couldn’t stop it and it ran away for four.
Naveen bounced back with two dot balls as David missed his swings across the line. David though finished the over in style with another six as he hammered one over long-on to make it 19 runs off the over.
With 11 needed off the last over, Krunal handed the ball to Mohsin. The left-arm pacer showed nerves of steel as he nailed his yorkers to perfection and gave away just five runs to spark wild celebrations in the LSG camp. Mohsin bounced back really well after going for 13 in his first over and finishing with 3-0-26-1. (ANI)
